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Climate Resilience: 2018 Handbook

2017 sparked new momentum towards building organizational climate resilience. Milestones included many influential public and private organization initiatives and a renewed commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius and new opportunities in the low-carbon economy. Costly, volatile extreme weather events demonstrated that organizations must prepare for a new normal. In June, the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) called on companies to disclose how physical climate– related risks and the transition to a low-carbon economy may affect corporate performance. By December, nearly 250 companies and financial institutions had committed to implementing the recommendations, and 130 investors with over US$13 trillion in assets encouraged the G20 to include the recommendations in their financial disclosure rules. The June G20 Summit concluded that green finance is an important solution to a range of complex, interconnected global challenges and the momentum continued with the G20 Green Finance Conference in Singapore in November. Throughout the year, regulators around the world have taken steps to stimulate and support green financing. For example, implementing new disclosure requirements for the issuance and listing of green debt securities from India’s Securities and Exchange Board.

In December, two years since the signing of 2015 Paris Accord, France hosted the Climate Finance Day and the One Planet Summit to energize the financial sector to “shift the trillions” to support a low-carbon economy. A growing range of investors also reduced holdings in fossil fuel companies, and many large insurers have stopped covering coal-related projects. Governments and regulations further drove the shift to a low-carbon economy, aided by new technology developments. The UK and French Governments committed to phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2040. In June, renewables provided 10% of the US’ electricity; and in November, Australia hit the on switch on the world’s largest battery, strong enough to power 30,000 homes. Taken together, with the convergence of the low-carbon economy and the fourth industrial revolution, experts predict that US$1 trillion worth of new markets will develop over the next decade. Incumbents are facing disruptive start-ups in determining who will capture the opportunities. Climate-related risks dominated the rankings of the top five threats to global prosperity in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2018. From hurricanes to wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts to prolonged floods, 2017 was a record year for natural disasters with 31 billion-dollar weather events globally. We do not yet know what is in store for 2018, but the focus on building climate resilience must continue. In this context, I am pleased to present the inaugural edition of 2018 MMC Climate Resilience Handbook. Drawing on the expertise and capabilities of our operating companies—Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman— these articles provide our collective insights on three distinct areas of action: strategies for climate resilience, financing for climate resilience, and how to leverage risk management tools to increase climate resilience.

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.